There were many interesting concepts on cause and effects on chapter 15. In the book, "Critical thinking" by Richard L. Epstein, he discusses the cause and effects in an argument. In section A2, Epstein describes the normal conditions in an argument. As Epstein defines, Normal conditions is, for a casual claim, the normal conditions are the obvious and plausible unstated claims that are needed to establish that the relationship between purported cause and purported effect is either valid or strong. I think learning and knowing about normal conditions is a very useful tool because it is easy to evaluate an argument. Epstein provides an example and explains that the argument can continue because we assume what "normally" can occur. The chapter also provides the criteria for cause and effects which may be very helpful as well. I think there were many interesting and useful tools in chapter 15 like all the other chapters in Epstein's book.
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I kind of glanced over this part while reading to get to other parts of the chapter so I was glad to see you covered it in this post. I like to think of normal conditions as common knowledge. It is something that people already know is true and can make the connection and do not require an explanation, like the example in the book. I agree that knowing about these conditions is important because it is part of the structure of a solid argument as are particular causes, general causes and generalizations. Good job citing everything and your post was easy to read.
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